


Roads to Salvation

by ABJ



Category: The Following
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Christmas, M/M, Suicide, weirdly convenient cars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-27
Updated: 2014-12-27
Packaged: 2018-03-03 21:21:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2888348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ABJ/pseuds/ABJ
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It would have been Christmas if the world hadn't ended.</p><p>Very loosely based on this prompt: http://kink-following.livejournal.com/754.html?thread=163826#t163826<br/>(and when I say loosely based I mean the only thing they really have in common is zombies but the kink meme needs more love)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Roads to Salvation

**Author's Note:**

> I meant to have this up for Christmas but better later than never, right?

“It would have been Christmas today,” Mike says quietly. Joe pulls the blankets up to cover them and holds him as he shakes. It happens to many of them; something triggers a memory, the situation of the world hits, and they panic. It’s been getting rarer as people adapt and learn to deal in their own ways. This is the first time Mike has had such an episode (or at least it is as far as Joe is aware) but with an old holiday like this is bound to dredge up buried emotions. As the appointed leader Joe is likely going to have to deal with others as the day goes on but Mike is the most important.

After all, Mike is the only thing he has left of Ryan’s.



 

For all the thousands of years that had forged modern civilization it proved to be a brittle thing, crumbling to pieces in less than a month. Joe had been holed up in Arkansas nursing is wounds and pride when the news started coming in of whole cities quarantined, more and more every day (Joe notices when New York is shut down, wondering if Ryan had made it out). 

Then the rumours started to hit town. The cause of the problem had never once been officially reported but word circulates that the dead are not staying dead and are attacking the living. It’s laughed off by all who hear it until Old Man Frank ate his grandson at his own funeral.

Joe received a panicked call from Judy who had been there (Frank was good to her, respectful even in light of her profession) and got out before the rush. Mandy watched him leave; she had been warming up to him but at that point there wasn’t enough between them for her to abandon her mother.

He drove to the nearest gas station and filled up the car. The pimple-faced teenager at the register had clearly yet to hear the news and didn’t even look up from his magazine as Joe emptied as much non-perishable food and bottles of water into bags as he could carry. He was about to just walk out when the boy called out “cameras” in a smug tone and Joe realized what he had forgotten to grab. He put the bags down by the door and picked up a few knives (he had taken Judy’s shotgun but he preferred blades, they’re much more personal). He tested each one on the arrogant brat then left him bleeding out on the cheap vinyl flooring. 

He continued driving for days before he saw another living person. The last news station had gone down two day previous so the only information is word of mouth. They trade gossip and he ends up with a passenger. Greg is ex-military and reminds Joe so very much of Charlie.

Nearly a week later they came across a small town which Joe never found out the original name of (now they simply call their portion of it Salvation; a corny name but it gave the ). The initial plan is to just to find supplies and leave as towns mean walking corpses but they run into a group of survivors and he is surprised to see Emma among them. She’s spitting mad at him but settles quickly and fills them in on the situation; a group of townsfolk had secured a school building, taking advantage of the fences already enclosing it and made it into a small fortress.

Once they got inside Joe found himself almost giddy at the opportunity; the group had no clear leader and the people were starved of hope and desperate for something to put their faith in. Emma was never good at making friends and was an outsider but she knew who to introduce him to in order get the plan going. It helped that he’d already been working on Greg’s loyalty as the man turned out to have a head for tactics that made him invaluable to the group and earned him instant acceptance with the higher ranks.

It didn’t take long to establish himself as the head of the group. From there he built himself up until he is something even more to them and they look at him as if he was close to holy. There are a few stubborn ones, suspicions or jealous of the power he held. They’re dealt with quickly; supply runs are dangerous and casualties are expected and Emma so needed to prove herself once again useful to him.



Mike grinds his hips against Joe’s, seeking distraction from his own mind. Joe is all too happy to oblige, fucking him until he can’t make out whole sentences let alone focus on whatever maudlin thoughts plagued him.



Spring was giving way to summer when Joe saw another familiar face as Mike Weston came to Salvation. The once-agent looks exhausted through to his bones; he was too thin, there were deep shadows encircling his eyes and the soles of his shoes had all but worn through. He didn’t seem surprised to find Joe alive, just saw how the group revered him and looked to him with resignation, eyes begging him to end it.

Joe took him to one of the old offices for privacy and asks after Ryan which got him a terse “he’s dead” in response, plunging them both into awkward silence. 

It would have been smart to kill the boy then but the confirmation of Ryan’s death hit Joe harder than he expected and he decides to keep the agent alive. It was difficult to tell who was angrier at that: Emma or Mike. It was some time before Mike would say another word.

Even though he didn’t talk it was clear Mike disagreed with how Joe had taken advantage of the peoples’ fear so he kept the boy separated from them. He’s quiet but should he decide to speak Joe didn’t want him planting doubt (there can only be so many “accidents” before even the most loyally blind begin to notice). Mike putters through the days with weary acceptance but every now and then there was a flash in the way he moved, a look in his eye, a thrown punch and for the moment he’s so _Ryan_ and Joe ends up spending much of his time poking and playing with the once-agent trying to elicit those responses.

He should have counted on Emma’s jealousy. The girl did everything in extremes and this was no different. It’s three weeks since Mike appeared, since Joe began spending all his spare time with the boy when Emma sneaks through and attacks him. How she thought she would succeed with the strength difference even if she did have a knife was beyond Joe. Mike didn't kill her, just held her off until the noise attracted attention and she was dragged away kicking and screaming. All she accomplished was to show Mike still had uses while she had outlived hers. She was sent on the next supply run and Greg proved that he's just as good as she once was at removing pests.

When the news of Emma’s passing came back Mike glared at Joe, knowing full well what he’d done but later he still ended up curled next to the man. He talked that night, his voice scratchy from disuse but he told the story of how he’d got to Salvation. 



Mike had been trying to reach out the Ryan, pull him out of the drunken hole he’d fallen into after Claire’s “death” (and it was a bit of a shock for Joe to learn she had survived Molly’s assault). He’d tracked the man down at one of the many shitty bars he frequented when a dead pack attacked. He’d managed to get to a car, pulling a heavily drunk Ryan along with him and they’d made it out of immediate danger. It wasn’t like Arkansas; New York was one of the first places hit and they’d had no warning there was anything wrong until there were hordes in the streets. Add to that the shear mass of people packed in together, the city had been overwhelmed in two days and they’d been trapped in a quarantined zone.

Out of necessity Ryan had been forced to quit drinking cold turkey which must have been hard. To make it more difficult he’d found out about Claire when the apartment they’d claimed for the night turned out to be hers. She was there with Joey but were both dead and moving. Mike had to deal with the two corpses as Ryan froze at the sight. 

The man refused to talk or eat for almost a week until they ran into a group of survivors. It was nothing like the group at Salvation; there were only four of them, they had no base and were forced to fight other survivors for provisions and shelter but Max Hardy had been among them. She hit her uncle and forced some food down his throat (she didn’t yell; yelling meant noise and noise attracts corpses). It was brutal but it kicked Ryan back into something that resembled a functioning human being.

They continued on with Max’s group for a time, Ryan slowly recovering as much as one could after the world had ended. A plan was formed to get out of the quarantine zone and against all odds it worked. They found cars and drove until they’re away from the danger of the cities and set up a makeshift camp on the outskirts of some no-name town. They fell into a routine and with routine came complacency.

It had been so long since they had seen a corpse and night watch had been cut down to one person. That night it was one of the men from Max’s group; a college kid who wouldn’t take anything seriously and fell asleep. It was bad luck that night happened to be when a horde came close enough to pick up their scent. They lose most of Max’s group, all except the idiot watcher and Max.

The four of them were trying to form a plan when Max started shaking and noticed a cluster of bite marks on her left arm. She held her gun out to Ryan and begged him to end it before she turned (her hands were too shaky for her to do it herself). When it became clear he wouldn’t she held it out to Mike. Her whole body was twitching and her eyes had started to glaze over but before he could take the gun the watcher boy snatched it and shot Max point blank in the face.

Ryan leapt at the boy, tackling him to the ground and throwing punch after punch at his face, chest, arms, whatever he could hit. By the time Mike pulled the man off the brat’s face looked liked it belonged in a butcher shop (Mike later confesses to Joe that he may have waited a bit on purpose before separating them).

They wait for the boy to regain consciousness before leaving (neither Ryan nor Mike expected the idiot to last long on his own). Ryan was in an even worse state than after the Claire incident and Mike was spread thin making sure he ate and drank and didn’t wonder off in the night. They holed up in a convenience store in what was probably a beautiful tourist town once upon a time. Mike was just so damn tired and closed his eyes. 

There was an earth-shaking _BOOM_ and he jolted awake to find Ryan gone and the empty packaging and tools lying around filled him with terrible foreboding.

He had looked around hoping to prove himself wrong but only found a note. He didn’t tell Joe all it said (he still hasn’t), just that it confirmed that Ryan had wanted to die and take as many corpses as he could with him. He’d been scavenging the things he needed whenever Mike wasn’t looking and had built a crude bomb which he strapped to himself and set off once he had attracted as many corpses as he could.

Mike finally understood what Ryan had went through; it was unlikely he would see any of his family again even if by some miracle they were still alive and he lost the one thing that kept him anchored to the present and all he could do was wallow in the past. It was a blow, not unexpected but still painful, that he couldn’t be– _could never have been_ \- enough for the man.

He found a car and drove on the first road he found that lead out of town, not caring where he was going and just needing to get away from the pain. When the car ran out of gas he found another one and continued in such fashion until the car stopped in the middle of nowhere and there are no vehicles around so he walked. He walked and nothing got better. Part of him wished he would run into a corpse horde so he could go out fighting like Ryan had. 

He didn't know how long it had been since Ryan’s death when he stumbled upon Salvation when looking for shelter for the night. He’d wanted to die, thought he would when he saw Joe, but grudgingly admitted he had begun to feel like himself again.

  

Mike was almost asleep when he finished his tale but Joe still pulled him up and guided him to what had once been the teacher’s lounge which now functioned as Joe’s personal room. He stripped the boy and pushed him down on the couch and stretched him, first with his fingers then his cock.

It’s Ryan’s name they both called out as they came.

-

Mike had stayed in Joe’s room since then. He went out during the days and Joe lifted the isolation order, allowing the boy to interact with the others. It was clear Mike liked to talk to them but was rightfully mindful of Joe’s possessive nature and didn’t get too close to anyone least they incurred his brutally vicious jealousy.



They lie there, pleasantly sated, in the darkness of the pre-dawn. It’s a few hours before either of them are expected to be awake and they could both use the rest so Joe pulls the blanket back up and puts an arm around Mike as they drift off. He kisses the boy’s neck with more gentle intimacy than they usually share and whispers in his ear.

“Happy Christmas.”


End file.
